I Am Heath Ledger (2017) * *

Directed by:  Adrien Buitenhuis and Derik Murray

Featuring:  Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Ang Lee

Heath Ledger died in January 2008 soon after wrapping what would be his posthumous Oscar-winning, iconic role of The Joker in The Dark Knight and while filming his next feature, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.    He was just 28 and as I Am Heath Ledger suggests, he had a lot more creativity in him simply waiting to bust out.     He was a tireless worker, with his mind racing a hundred miles a minute with ideas and plans for projects.    His brief film career rose following The Patriot, Monster's Ball, and A Knight's Tale, stumbled with The Order and The Four Feathers, then rose again to superstardom with Brokeback Mountain.    The Dark Knight might have netted him an Oscar even if he had lived, because it was such a daring, original performance.    But, we will never know that. 

I Am Heath Ledger covers the all too brief life of Ledger, who moved from Australia to Hollywood as a late teen and soon found himself in the lead role of the teen comedy 10 Things I Hate about You (1999).    Ledger wanted more than to be pigeonholed as a teen heartthrob, he wanted mainstream fame, which came and went and then came again, but before he could ever gain his footing and appreciate it, he was gone.    In the words of a childhood friend, "He wanted fame, until it came and then he didn't want it anymore,"    At the time of Ledger's death, he wanted to explore directing and other avenues of filmmaking.    We sense he would have been one to try and push boundaries, like he did in some of his performances.

This documentary has a clear love for its subject because it was made with assistance of Ledger's childhood friends and actors such as Naomi Watts, who once was Ledger's girlfriend and has a great affection for Ledger's spirit.    But, something is missing here.    I Am Heath Ledger never fully compels.    It wastes a lot of time on Ledger's home movie projects, which are as long and artless as your average Joe's home movies.    Just because it's Heath Ledger doing the work doesn't make it any more riveting.

The movie spends the most time on Ledger's best known performances in Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight.    We gain an understanding of Ledger's unusual choice in physical mannerisms which completely work for his characters of Ennis and The Joker.    We learned he licked his lips as The Joker a lot out of necessity because his lips would dry out.    It is illuminating to hear Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain's director, confess that Ledger actually had more lines in the film than any other actor, but due to Ledger's unique acting choices made it seem like he didn't speak much.

The Order, The Four Feathers, Casanova, and I'm Not There are not covered at all, which makes the documentary seem only interested in Ledger's successes and not his failures.    I would have liked to see how he handled box office bombs and how they played into his psyche as an actor.    I would have also enjoyed to hear from Michelle Williams, with whom Ledger had a daughter, but it isn't necessarily the filmmakers' fault if she didn't wish to be interviewed.   

We see Ledger as an artist who rarely slept, who was insecure, but unafraid to try new things in his performances, and whose flame was doused much too early.    There is a better documentary to be made on his life, but this isn't it.    It is frustrating to watch.